Please tell us a little about yourself – a mini bio if you will.

David: I’m Director of Emerging Media and Client Strategy with 360i, the search-focused digital agency. I’ve been writing a weekly Search Insider column for MediaPost since it launched in mid-2004. For fun, I have my own blog at MarketersStudio.com, and I do a fair amount of speaking at industry events. It’s a great gig, especially with the clients I get to work with.

Gord: Search marketer, research fan, marketing pundit, columnist and Chair of SEMPO. And those are just my day jobs.

Search Insider Summit is a fairly new conference. How did you get involved and what is your current role?

David: This is the fourth conference in the past two years. I’ve been the program chair since it began, so I’ve had a hands-on role shaping the content and working with all the speakers, along with doing some speaking myself.

Gord: As a Search Insider columnist, I guess I’m amongst the “Usual Suspects” when it comes to being involved with the Summit. I hosted in the Spring in Florida, and I guess I’m back for a repeat performance in Park City. David tells me I’m also on the Advisory Board.

What will you be talking about at the upcoming event in Park City Utah? What’s top of mind for you right now when it comes to search?

David: I’ll be talking a lot less than usual, only appearing on one panel with the other Search Insider columnists, so it’ll be fun shutting up and learning something from the masters. What’s top of mind for me is how search and social media interact. I’m really excited for the sessions on Saturday, especially one on universal search, and I’m not just BSing you because you’re the moderator. With universal search, Google and the other engines are showing how social media optimization (SMO) becomes search engine optimization (SMO).

Gord: I wrote a column awhile back titled “Will Agencies ever Get Search? Don’t Hold Your Breath.” Rumor has it that I’ll be dragging that debate into a public forum on the opening day. I suspect there will be no quicker way to polarize the audience. I’m sure I’ll be touching on other topics as well during the show. Personally, I’m fascinated by how we use search as an extension of our own decision modeling.

Since were at the end of the year, can you make some predictions about search marketing in 2008? Is anything more notable that personalized and unified search in store for the way engines work (algorithmically)? What changes regarding paid search and social search do you see in store?

David: Unified or universal search is just getting warmed up, as is just about anything with social media optimization. With paid search, I don’t anticipate so many changes to it because what all of these new social media ad opportunities and other new models reveal is how hard it is to find anything more effective than search engine marketing. Granted, people are only searching so much of the time online, and the new models for when people are consuming content are getting much more sophisticated. I’m really curious to see if mobile search gains traction.

Gord: Ah..search predictions. Gotta love them. Well, we’ll see continued experimentation and testing with both personalized and unified search (and hopefully, we’ll come to agreement on the label we attach to it..unified..universal..3D..it’s getting really confusing). And I’m thinking mobile will see some significant changes in the coming year as well. My crystal ball is a little fuzzy.

From my previous experience, this event is strategically focused in it’s programming and there’s an abundance of networking opportunities. Who do you think is the ideal delegate for an event like this?

David: Ultimately, I think the ideal delegate is someone who’s dying to learn, and who will at least be coaxed into contributing given the chance. This is an event for someone hungry to explore not just what works but why it works. It’s someone who’s up for taking a ton of notes that they’ll turn into action items for their CMO or their agency.

Gord: Not sure who the ideal candidate is, because there’s a lot of territory being covered. I’d think the people who are looking at how to further integrate search into their own company’s bucket of best practices would find it useful. Also, the agency folks who are looking at how to expand their internal search practices will probably find a good fit. If nothing else, they can gang up and push me off a chair lift or down a luge run.

Since the event will be held at the Stein Eriksen Lodge, which will it be for you? Skiing or snowmobiling?

David: I’ve never skied but I’ll be willing to try the bunny slope. With snowmobiling, I’m in Manhattan and don’t drive much, but I’ve been playing Mario Kart 64 on the Wii during an occasional sanity break, and I’m not sure you want to see me behind the wheel of anything right now. I’m hoping there’ll be smores.

Gord: I’m from Canada. Snow is not something I’m going to be going out of my way to frolic in. Finding a location strategically located by the nearest fireplace sounds good, preferably with some type of hot drink in my hand.

Thanks guys! See you next week!

You can find more info about the Search Insider Summit on the registration or session schedule pages.

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Hong Kong’s Broadband Is How Fast?

Gizmodo was quick to point out that Verizon will deliver 5 Mbps to customers for $40 per month, and up to 30 Mbps for $180 per month.

But in Hong Kong, according to a City Telecom press release, 5 Mbps isn’t even an option. Or even 10, because they’ve just discontinued their 10 Mbps offering, making the 25 Mbps the entry (basic) package.

How much is that? The release doesn’t say, but if you’d like to try the 100 Mbps service (boy would we!), it’ll about $48.50. Not fast enough? (Huh? Couldn’t fathom that kind of speed.) CTEL can upgrade you to 200 Mbps for $88.

Still too slow?

I know, your mind’s melting, right?

How about 1 Gbps for $215?

So, how do you feel about paying $180 per month for that blistering 30 Mbps now? Yeah, kinda figured. Maybe we should ask for our $200 billion back, eh? 

This permits the mapper to select a point to pass through on the way from A to B. Someone going from a subway stop to a museum may want to pass by a certain coffee shop that isn’t directly on the way, for example.

Ask City lets the visitor adjust the directions to include that new stop. A hyperlink to “Adjust Route” appears at the bottom of each step of the directions, for access to this feature.

The bigger update follows a similar, recent move by Google to provide embeddable maps. Site and blog publishers who want to highlight some location, and relevant places within that area, can make a map on Ask City to bring to their sites.

This feature is an evolution from Ask’s earlier debut of the “search inside” feature of Ask City, according to Gary. It gives the mapmaker/site publisher the ability to present the map to visitors, rather than just a link to the map.

More importantly, embeddable mapping demonstrates in vivid fashion that not all the nifty features in search come from Google’s Mountain View labs. Google may be the most familiar search site in the world, but searchers should give the Asks, Yahoos, and even Microsofts a try. They might be pleasantly surprised by what they find.

“Censorship!  Conspiracy!  Google’s gone evil!” is the cry that’s been taken up by some.  Others have suggested that Google is just trying to keep 21 world leaders from getting blown up.  And according to Rob Shilkin, a spokesman for Google Australia, they’re all wrong; the poor image quality is the result of a business arrangement gone bad.

“This has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with APEC,” Shilkin told The Sydney Morning Herald.  “We’re re-sourcing our imagery for parts of Sydney as a result of a commercial issue with one of our suppliers, so some of the highest-res images have been temporarily replaced.”

And as fun as a conspiracy theory would be, Shilkin’s explanation seems quite possible.  After all, Google did about the best it could with a map of Washington, D.C. when restrictions were put in place there.

Also, we have yet to see how long the “fuzziness” over Google Maps’s representation of Sydney will last – this could all be resolved well before the APEC summit.

Amazon was the top ranked site for search satisfaction, and one of the top ranked sites in six of nine categories including price satisfaction, product research and site navigation and organization.

Best Buy had the biggest improvement in online customer experience over the past year and was the top ranked site for customer satisfaction. It also ranked in the top for ease of purchase and customer support. Best Buys most significant gains were in search satisfaction.

The Dell Web site also saw improvements in customer experience and satisfaction in the past year, with solid gains in product interest and the overall perceptions of the visual appeal of its site.

In the Keynote Service Level Rankings studies Circuit City had the most reliable Web site with little or no downtime and Staples Web site was fastest in downloading pages and completing transactions.

The study examined 2,200 consumers online retail experience and was conducted during May and June 2007.

For the most part, they seem to like beaches. And not topless ones, either. For the Internet, web cams are for checking out things you don’t get to see every day.

I imagine people from Panama City might be interested in checking out Alaska, or those in Vegas might like to see live deer.

It’s an interesting facet of human nature, I think, that we ignore the glory that is around us and seek other glories. I live amongst the natural beauty of Kentucky, but rarely see it. When I lived in Japan, I passed Mt. Fuji every day as Fuji-san sat on the horizon like some ancient guard or some subdued, placated monster. Eventually, I didn’t notice it either.

At the base of Fuji was a forest called Aokigahara, or "Sea of Trees," a popular suicide destination as the magnetic field around the volcano disabled compasses, and people would go into it, basking in the symbolism of being lost and never find their way out again. It was said to be haunted by thousands of ghosts.

They should set up a Web cam there to see if it’s true. Ghost cams, according to Yahoo’s Erik Gunther, are the second-most sought after types of cams, right after live beach cams.

If you’re thinking of setting up some kind of Web cam site, these are the top 20 things surfers are looking to escape to:

1.    live beach cams
2.    ghost cams
3.    key west cams
4.    las vegas web cams
5.    zoo cams
6.    alaska web cams
7.    myrtle beach web cams
8.    panama city beach cams
9.    live traffic street cams
10.    live deer cams
11.    hawaii web cams
12.    galveston web cams
13.    yellowstone web cams
14.    cruise cams
15.    animal cams
16.    alaska weather cams
17.     jackson hole webcams
18.    volcano cams
19.    panda cams
20.    colorado web cams

At first glance, this looks like something of a hollow victory.  After all, with a population of less than 30,000 people, Hastings would probably remain beautiful regardless of its citizens’ actions.  Then again, that fact shows Yahoo wasn’t favoring more well-known sites – the biggest city on its top ten list is Topeka, Kansas.

And it turns out that Yahoo wasn’t just looking at the amount of grass in any given area, either.  “Current initiatives [in Hastings] include conversion of methane to energy at its pollution control center, local production of Ethanol E85, extensive networks of parks and hiking and biking trails, and installation of energy-efficient street lighting,” reveals a Yahoo press release.

Yahoo’s “Greenest City in America” challenge is only the latest in a series of conservation projects.  Google has also gone green, and made announcements about a fleet of hybrid cars and some solar panel arrays just last week.  Even Microsoft is getting on board . . . it appears that the corporations are vying for the title of “Greenest Company-With-A-Search-Engine in America.”

For today, however, the spotlight remains on Yahoo and Hastings.  Also – I’m kind of hungry at the moment – let’s not forget that Nebraska-style BBQ.

The first pundit of note as a decent excuse – Charles Knight has made a name for himself raising awareness of hundreds of alternative search engines. He’s done a phenomenal job building that list and gaining a following on his altsearchengines blog, part of the Read/Write Web group where his columns first appeared. He comes off as this Don Quixote figure, even if on occasion he comes off as a bit like a cult leader, as he once wrote a number of people, myself included, seeking someone with "a passion for the cause of the alternative search engines." I’m all for the education, but for causes, I’ll stick to City Harvest and the like. Still, I applaud the work he’s doing, as he’s single-handedly raised visibility for dozens of search engines that deserve to find an audience (and hundreds more that don’t).

Not only have I declined to enter into the "true believer" camp of Mr. Knight, but I’ve been routinely quoted as the defender of the status quo, sort of like Aaron Eckhart’s character in Thank You for Smoking. It all started by a brief comment responding to an altsearchengine post on a "Day without Google," where readers were encouraged to break their Google crack habit and try another search engine drug of choice. My comment signaled how crucial the major engines are for allowing me to function:

"I might as well take it as a vacation day. The top 5 are the top 5 for a reason."

A quick Google search (yes, I’m evil) relating to that quote showed 10 mentions, or 97 if you show the omitted and potentially duplicate results, including a mention in the UK’s Register. Word travels fast.

I found the quote come up once again in a post on Search Engine Land by none other than the Sultan of Search Engine Marketing himself, Danny Sullivan (maybe Kevin Ryan can be the Shah). He’s inspired by Mr. Knight and is publicizing Google-Free Fridays. Yet rather than trying to use this to promote usage of truly alternative engines, he wants his readers to try Yahoo, Windows Live, Ask, and AOL.

I’m not sure my response to Mr. Sullivan’s post will get as much play (it’s not as pithy), but it’s worth sharing here:

This blog caters [Search Engine Land] to search engine marketers, right? Whether one is client-side, at a search engine marketing agency, or even from another search engine, it’s in everyone’s best interest to check out other search engines from time to time. If you only use one engine, no matter what that engine is, you’re not doing your job. Why we need a schedule for this is beyond me.

Full disclosure: I have the Google toolbar and use it religiously. In the Firefox search bar, however, I routinely have one of the other engines as the default so an alternative is easily accessible, and I often take deep dives on the others to see if anyone’s offering improvements over the Google standard (see the recent column on Ask.com as an example). I also routinely check out vertical and specialized search engines relating to shopping, health, and other categories.

No matter which of the major engines you use, odds are it’s good enough. comScore’s rankings of search engine market share don’t even include an "other" category. It’s great to dive into that "other" category, but if you’re already working with search engines in any significant way, you better be using more than one already or you’re doing a disservice to your clients.

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Those citizens will receive compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) after “taking the green pledge,” “shar[ing] what you know on Yahoo! Answers,” or “get[ting] better, greener results with Yahoo oneSearch.”  That translates to a fair gain for very little pain, right?  But participating in the “Be a Better Planet” program can have a larger impact; hybrid taxis are, after all, much bigger than CFLs.

One fleet of taxis has already been promised to New York City (which was “recently determined to produce 1% of all U.S. greenhouse gases,” according to Yahoo), but that leaves the other ten vehicles unclaimed.  They will go to the winning city in this contest – the greenest city, as designated by the search engine company.

A Yahoo spokesperson outlined the potential benefits in a phone interview with WebProNews: 40,000 gallons of gas will be saved, assuming the hybrid taxis are replacing Crown Vics (the aging, overweight mainstays of most taxi fleets).  A press release put the savings into other terms: “enough gas to drive a hybrid vehicle 56 times around the Earth.”

There is also, as mentioned earlier, a famous face involved in all of this – Matt Dillon.  Other potentially recognizable participants include Matt Petersen (the CEO of Global Green USA), Lester Brown (President of the Earth Policy Institute), and Bill Chameides (Chief Scientist of Environmental Defense); Yahoo’s rounded up a pretty impressive gang.

Join them while you can.  The “Be a Better Planet” program concludes on June 8, so it’d be wise to do your part for your environment, your city, and your CFL bulb before then.

According to Hussey, newspapers will conform to what magazines are today. For example, Time magazine used to report news. Although it still has news, by the time the magazine hits the shelf the news is old. Time has taken on a new approach that allows them to cover the news, but they do so in a more detailed manner that is different from other news sources.

Bloggers have gotten to the point in which they cover most news topics. Hussey believes that newspapers are under the biggest threat to being eliminated and suggests that they embrace the blogosphere models. By allowing people to submit stories to them offline just as bloggers do online, is one of Hussey’s suggestions. If a newspaper printed a reader’s email of an eyewitness account of a big story or a similar situation, it would give that paper more coverage.

The City Council & Government in Springdale, Arkansas, is a blog that has a very good perspective of this subject.

“Journalists are professionals at gathering facts and providing reliable, accurate reporting of important information.”

Journalists are required to enforce objectivity and accuracy. Their opinions do not leak into their work unless it is of an editorial status. Blogs and newspapers are completely different. Although not to demean blogging in any way, blogging is for “opinion, debate, and discussion.” A journalist may have a strong opinion on a topic, but it is their job to conceal it with objectivity.

While Hussey strongly agrees with springdalevotes.com, he believes newspapers have an opportunity to accept the new media and use it to their advantage. To get all the details of this intriguing topic, tune in to our exclusive interview with Tris Hussey only on WebProNews.